Why can't we discuss guns?

Mental illness, firearms a dangerous combination

A woman weeps as she arrives to pick up her children following a shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Conn., on Friday, Dec. 14. A gunman entered the school last Friday and killed at least 26 people, including 20 young children.

On Friday, an unthinkable tragedy took place in Newtown, Conn. A man opened fire in an elementary school, taking the lives of 26 people, 20 of them young children, before apparently taking his own life. As the horror unfolded, police reported the mother of the suspected shooter was found dead at her son's home.

Days earlier, a gunman opened fire in a shopping mall in Oregon, taking the lives of two apparently random shoppers before taking his own life. Earlier this year, another young man walked into a movie theater in Aurora, Colo., and opened fire, killing 12 moviegoers and injuring another 58 before he was taken into custody. And that just covers the high-profile incidents in 2012.

We are not in a war zone, but we might as well be.

A frequent factor in these violent incidents is mental illness. In many - but not all - of these incidents, the weapons used to wreak havoc were obtained legally.

This is not a proposed assault on the Second Amendment. There is, of course, no way to avoid all gun violence. But there is a clear choice we must ultimately make: What kind of society do we want to inhabit - one in which we risk our lives to watch a movie, go shopping or enter a classroom?

Or one where capable and responsible adults are free to own guns but every effort is made to weed out those who could turn violent?

Mental illness is the unmentioned elephant in the room that nobody wants to talk about. Adults with mental illness often fall through the cracks because insurance doesn't cover mental illness the way it covers other conditions, and because mentally unstable people often do not understand that they need help. Yet without consent, no one can provide the care they need.

The first step on this journey is to simply begin discussing these issues. How many more innocent people will die before we receive that wake-up call and begin to talk - and listen?